MAC Theater Presents Tiny Beautiful Things

Tiny Beautiful Things opens on the Marion Art Center Stage on Friday, October 16, with Margo Ruggiero, Macy Kinney, Amy-Susie Bradford, Stephanie Lawrence and Frank Mitchell Scanzillo. Sarah Jick manages the show, with Steve McManus as technical director and Hannah Bessey as technical assistant. The play is directed by Jennifer Palmer.

The writer Cheryl Strayed is the author of the memoir Wild, which was made into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name, starring Reese Witherspoon. The play, coming soon to the MAC, Tiny Beautiful Things, dramatizes an unusual phase of her career before she found fame. At that time, Strayed followed and admired an online anonymous advice column called “Dear Sugar.” She wrote a fan letter of sorts to the columnist. He wrote back, revealing his identity as a fellow writer she had once met, and he invited her to take over the column. Despite knowing there would be no writing credit and no pay, she said “yes.”

Strayed used empathy and her personal experiences to help those seeking guidance for obstacles both large and small. These responses form the backbone of this engrossing play.

Based on Strayed’s bestselling book and adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos, Tiny Beautiful Things personifies the questions and answers that “Sugar” published online from 2010 to 2012. Tiny Beautiful Things is a play about reaching when you’re stuck, healing when you’re broken, and finding the courage to take on the questions that have no answers.

Show Dates are October 16, 17, 18, 23 and 24, with Friday and Saturday curtain at 7:30 pm and the Sunday matinee curtain at 2:00 pm. All shows take place at the MAC’s Anne Braitmayer Webb Theater, located at 80 Pleasant St. in Marion. Tickets are $23 for members and $28 for nonmembers. Tickets and information can be found at marionartcenter.org/events.